European markets fell between 0.7%-1.5%, reacting to a slew of earnings news and economic data. Euro zone producer prices fell at their fastest rate since November 2009 in January. This further added to concerns about the deflationary environment in the bloc. Elsewhere, Spain announced a sharp drop in jobless claims during January; Germany reported a rise in retail sales for January.

AT HOME

Benchmark indices gained nearly half a percent yesterday, extending the winning streak to fourth day. Nifty gained 39 points to settle at fresh record high of 8996 while Sensex finished at 29594, up 135 points. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices soared 1.2% and 1.4% respectively. BSE Oil & Gas and IT indices gained 2.2% and 1.4% respectively, becoming top gainers among the sectoral indices while Auto and Metal indices lost the most, giving away 0.9% and 0.6% respectively.

Lok Sabha yesterday passed the Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation or MMDR Bill 2015. The changes proposed in the bill are likely to ease bottlenecks in the sector. All the mineral concessions will now be granted through auction only. Mining leases will be auctioned for some of the notified minerals like iron ore, bauxite, limestone and Manganese Ore. The other deep seated minerals, their prospective licenses as well as mining leases will be auctioned. This ordinance will benefit the companies and the miners which were already mining since it will pave the way for them to open up mining which was stalled due to various court cases and PILs all across due to illegal mining.

Government yesterday introduced insurance bill in Lok Sabha.

OUTLOOK

China’s HSBC Services PMI for February has come in at 52, up from 51.8 in January.

Nikkei is down nearly a percent on the back of strengthening Yen. Other Asian markets are trading mixed with marginal changes and SGX Nifty is suggesting about 15 points lower opening for our market.

Readers would recall that when Nifty broke out of the trendline resistance placed around 8880 on budget day, we had said that “while the recorded high of 8997 made on 30th January is the immediate target, Nifty can extend the upmove to around 9200, where the upward sloping trendline adjoining recent tops on the weekly chart is placed.

The benchmark yesterday touched a high of 9008 before closing at 8996, achieving the first target mentioned above.

“Hold on to trading longs with a trailing stop loss” continues to be the advice. Immediate support on the hourly chart has moved up to 8850, which should serve as that stop loss.

Department of Telecom will start the biggest ever auction of 2G and 3G spectrum today wherein 8 firms will bid to acquire radiowaves in four bands, which may fetch the government over Rs 82,000 crore.